The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has accused the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) of doctoring revenue documents.
Rep James Faleke, the Chairman of the committee, accused the agency at the public hearing on the 2022-2024 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), on Wednesday.
The committee walked out the agency for failing to give appropriate figures on its daily output of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and other petroleum products in the country.
The committee agreed that there were discrepancies in the records presented by the PPPRA, as well as the revenues due to the Federation Account.
Faleke asked the agency to reappear on Aug. 26 to further clarify the discrepancies noticed in the agency’s documents saying that the documents submitted by the agency showed that the daily output of PMS and other products were the same for 2018 and 2019.
He observed that daily consumption of PMS was put at 48 million liters within the period under review, while Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) was put at 10.5 million liters per day.
Faleke said that in another document, PPPRA claimed that it discharged 59.90 million liters daily in Jan 2019, 55.04 million in February and 55.66 million liters in March.
He said the documents further indicated that the supply jumped to 60.27 million liters in Jan 2020, then 60.56 million liters in Feb and down to 56.07 million liters in March 2020.
For the supply in 2021, he noted that it further jumped to 61.92 liters per day in January and down to 58.09 million liters in February, before moving up to 66.64 million liters in March 2021.
“The records presented have contradictions that cannot be ignored. Tell us that the documents are not correct so that we can move forward.
“The data you gave us before says 52 million per day, that means it is wrong, so your Naira figure too will be wrong.
“We are working on this foundation, upon which we will develop and work with,” he said.
In his ruling, the Committee chairman directed PPPRA to produce the records of all the daily outputs of petroleum products, as well as the revenue remittances to the federal government, when it reappears on Aug 26.
He also demanded the Financial Reporting Council, the Accountant General Office, as well as the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to scrutinise the records and reappear before the committee on Aug 26.
Faleke said after submitting its data, it was assumed the agency found out that the figures in its records were doctored and ambiguous.
The PPPRA was represented by the Assistant General Manager (AGM), Corporate Services, Mr Kimshi Apollo.
In his reaction, Apollo said the agency brought the constant figure of 48 million liters based on what transpired earlier regarding the average daily consumption by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
He could not give details and answers to some of the questions posed by the committee, who were irked by his incoherent response and, therefore, asked him to leave the venue of the hearing. (NAN)
